Motorola Milestone A853 Support 850/1900/2100 With Baseband Upgrade

[trhuseby]

I guess here may be the $1000 question. If the A853 is sold both to Europe and to South America, and we know at least some of the phones in South America have to support 850/1900/2100 UTMS 3G so: Either they are shipping a different piece of hardware down there... OR they are simply using different radio baseband software. Now I'm of the opinion that Motorola isn't as short-sighted as HTC (as with the Goole Nexus One which doesn't have the PA's required to support 850/1900/2100 even though the radio does), but that they have indeed included support for both 850/1900/2100 and 900/2100 into the HW and are simply using different baseband SW. I wonder what would happen if took the baseband firmware from one of these phones from Argentina that supports 850/1900/2100 UTMS and flashed the European version of the Milestone that suppots 900/2100... What do you bet this would enable 850/1900/2100 on the European Milestone???

 

[arlissfreire]

You have a good point - I would love for someone to test it.

But so far I have never seen 3G bands being a software issue.
Most likely this is a hardware issue.

 

[trhuseby]

I might believe that to be true except for the fact that the model #'s appear to be the same... Also intersting that the BOM for the Milestone/Droid is more than that of the Nexus One... Possibly Motorola included the extra PA's required (you can get all of them on one chip I believe) and spend the extra $$$ to do it.. All we need to get someone to do is try it.. or take a look at the BOM and verify that the PA's either do or don't support 850/1900/2100. I have a sneaky feeling they do..

 

[big_adventure]

Well, you're going to hit a bigger problem - how to flash a baseband on a Milestone? We are not quite there yet, I don't think. Be fun to try, though. I visit the US at least twice a year, and it wouldn't suck to get 3G there.

If you manage to flash it and it breaks, fixing it shouldn't be too hard, because applying the SBF image of the HK ROM does, in fact, seem to reflash the baseband. You can then re-root, and do whatever you like.

My evidence ? Glad you asked. I was on 2.0 rooted, then I applied 2.0.1 non-root, using the French update.zip on my French Milestone. Well, I wanted root, so I applied the HK ROM with RSD Lite, and then rooted it, since the SBF image puts back the broken recovery that can be hacked to get root. But I did document my versions:

French 2.0.1 "1.15" (pre-RSD Lite with the 2.0.1 HK image)

Baseband Version: 3GSMEPU01A_U_91.08.15I
Baseband configuration version: UCASHLSEMEAB1B803F.0R

HK 2.0.1 "1.14" (after RSD Lite flash):

Baseband Version: 3GSMEPU01A_U_91.08.12I
Baseband configuration version: UCASHLSEMEAB1B803F.0R

So, the configuration version was unchanged, and the Baseband WAS changed (apparently downgraded, in fact) by the flash.

 

[landroid]

hey i flashed a brazilian vivo sbf and i dont have 850 3g
:icon_eek:

 

[big_adventure]

hey i flashed a brazilian vivo sbf and i dont have 850 3g
:icon_eek:

Yeah, that's what everyone has discovered so far. If you flash an SA Milestone with European firmware, it all works but you lose 3G UNLESS you live in an area that supports 2100 - and not many do. If you flash a European Milestone with SA firmware, however, you typically do NOT get 850 3G.

This raises the question as to why? Since the European firmware works perfectly (though without 850 and 1900 UMTS bands), it indicates that the hardware doesn't have differences big enough not to work with the /bpsw and /system partitions.

If you mix SA /bpsw and /cust with European /system, you get a bootable phone with no radio at all - no 2G, no 3G, nothing.

I have not personally tried a full SA configuration, but others who have tried it have not met with success.

So, either the European 'stone lacks the necessary wiring, or there is some firmware difference in a part of the phone we don't have mastered and haven't tried copying/flashing/etc. The odd thing to me is that the SA 'stone works with Euro firmware, provided you live in the right place. Odd.

 

[Daggoran]

Hi everyone,

I am currently suffering from exactly that weirdness.

Having a DACH European stone and living in Argentina.
I flashed the brazilian 2.01 spf and lost completely connection to my local mobile provider.

I does not even recongnise the mobile network, nothing.

And with the DACH spf I get only Edge and no 3g

The only ones who can bring light into this issue seem to be Motorola, but I am not sure if they are willing to do so.

 

[Daggoran]

Update:

Using my FCC ID IHDP56KC2 (from the european stone) I found the published files when motorola applied for the FCC approval for this phone.

The clearly applied only for WCDMA 900/2100 for this version.

And to an explicite question from the authority whether WCDMA capability is NOT implemented in U.S. bands, Motorola confirmed.

See point 5 in the pdf linked:

https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=1183567&native_or_pdf=pdf

So if there is a possibility to change the baseband just by software (I can image there is), it would be absolutely illegal to do so for the European Stone. And if it is possible to do so by firmware, we talk about hardware coding on the deepest level.

So I personally will look for another solution / phone here in Argentina.

I really liked the stone

 

[pdouble]

I have a Euro Milestone that I am using in Canada and I am unable to get 3G as well. I purchased the phone and was not told 3G wouldn't work because of the Baseband... My fault for not investigating... I am a newbie at all of this but I would like to know from you guy's if this is something that can be fixed? I was reading above the comments but I am not technical at all when it comes to this stuff. Am I out of luck or is this something you guy's see being solved in the future?

 

[pdouble]

Anyone with any info on the above??

 

[Techneut]

I have a Euro Milestone that I am using in Canada and I am unable to get 3G as well. I purchased the phone and was not told 3G wouldn't work because of the Baseband... My fault for not investigating... I am a newbie at all of this but I would like to know from you guy's if this is something that can be fixed? I was reading above the comments but I am not technical at all when it comes to this stuff. Am I out of luck or is this something you guy's see being solved in the future?

The answer has already been given!

"If you flash a European Milestone with SA firmware, however, you typically do NOT get 850 3G.
others who have tried it have not met with success."

 

[pdouble]

Thanks Techneut